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When someone stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of drug money and jewelry from her during a burglary in October 2007, she soon came to suspect customers Diaz and Cecilia Coronado, prosecutors said.

Held captive for days, Diaz was kicked, punched and beaten with pipes and chains by other addicts who were prompted by Gamez with free drugs, DiMaio said. His body was later wrapped in plastic, mummylike, and left in a closet until someone dumped it and set it on fire under a bridge along New Laredo Highway, the prosecutor said.

“The person who controlled the other people involved was this defendant,” DiMaio said. “She was the one who had the drugs, the money and the power.”

Coronado, the woman Gamez allegedly suspected, had been close to the defendant since she was hired to dance for Gamez's son at his birthday party, prosecutors said.

After the burglary, Coronado was tortured and held captive for more than six months before she was able to find a cell phone and call 911, DiMaio told the jury. By the time police found her, she had two black eyes, burns, cuts on her face and a stove mark on her buttocks.

Among those expected to testify against Gamez during the trial is sister-in-law Emma Mello, a co-defendant who has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a sentence of 15 to 20 years.

Taking the stand Monday was house painter Jerry Mello, a cousin of Gamez's husband who said he worked one of Gamez's drug houses at night in exchange for heroin or crack cocaine. At Gamez's direction, he helped beat Diaz, he said, explaining that he saw Diaz tied up over the next several days. He didn't see what happened after that, he testified.